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Ruidoso murder featured on ID Channel shows this month

Book "Death in a Red Desert" outlines the murder and trials

Ruidoso News

Posted:
10/11/2013 09:08:24 AM MDT

Courtesy
The victim, Elizabeth Lankhorst-Ballard, was strangled and her body was buried in the Tularosa desert.

An October episode of "Deadly Affairs," a series hosted by actress Susan Lucci on the Investigation Discovery Channel, will focus on a 1998 murder in Ruidoso and the part played by former Police Chief Wolfgang Born in solving the crime and arresting the killers.

Born, a former police officer in El Paso, searched the vast area around Round Mountain and the Tularosa Desert before finding the body of Elizabeth Lankhorst-Ballard in a shallow grave with the help of a cadaver dog.

Charles Martinez was convicted of the first-degree strangulation murder of the young mother, waitress and aspiring health care worker. Christopher Faviell pleaded no contest to second-degree murder after a jury failed to reach a verdict in his separate trial.

Charles Martinez was arrested in Albuquerque, but brought back to Magistrate Court for arraignment and later for a preliminary hearing on a murder charge. (Dianne Stallings Ruidoso News)

Martinez, a transvestite who often dressed in an alternate identity called Eva, still is in prison, scheduled to be released in 2016. Faviell, who worked as a chef and ran two different restaurants in town, The Roastery and The Taste Bud, served less than five years, but has been in trouble since his release. He served about 18 months on a charge of larceny and currently is facing charges of kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and aggravated battery on a household member great bodily harm in Belen. The victim claims Faviell attempted to strangle her.

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The book "Death in a Red Desert," written by Ruidoso resident Charles Stallings and Dianne Stallings, a reporter for the Ruidoso News, who covered the trials, follows the events leading up to and through the murder, the subsequent search for the body and trials of the two men. Charles Stallings also appears in the episode titled "Skeletons in the Closet," which is scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Oct. 19. The episode will replay at 1 a.m., 5 a.m. and 12 p.m., also EST, Oct.

Christopher Faviell s mug shot when he was charged with Lankhorst-Ballard s murder. The spelling of his last name differs in court records with Faviel listed for the murder charge, but Faviell for his more recent convictions and the new charges he faces. (Courtesy)

20, according to information from the ID Channel.

Kim Yumping of Sirens Media headed the production crew that came to Ruidoso to film the segment.

"Death in a Red Desert" is sold at Books Etc. in Ruidoso and Hastings in Alamogordo or through the website deathinareddesert.com.